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<title>Halfdan the Black's Saga</title>
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	<h2 id="s1">1. HALFDAN FIGHTS WITH GANDALF AND SIGTRYG.</h2>
	<p>Halfdan was a year old when his father was killed, and his mother Asa
		set off immediately with him westwards to Agder, and set herself there in the
		kingdom which her father Harald had possessed. Halfdan grew up there, and
		soon became stout and strong; and, by reason of his black hair, was called
		Halfdan the Black. When he was eighteen years old he took his kingdom in
		Agder, and went immediately to Vestfold, where he divided that kingdom, as
		before related, with his brother Olaf. The same autumn he went with an army
		to Vingulmark against King Gandalf. They had many battles, and sometimes one,
		sometimes the other gained the victory; but at last they agreed that Halfdan
		should have half of Vingulmark, as his father Gudrod had had it before. Then
		King Halfdan proceeded to Raumarike, and subdued it. King Sigtryg, son of
		King Eystein, who then had his residence in Hedemark, and who had subdued
		Raumarike before, having heard of this, came out with his army against King
		Halfdan, and there was great battle, in which King Halfdan was victorious;
		and just as King Sigtryg and his troops were turning about to fly, an arrow
		struck him under the left arm, and he fell dead. Halfdan then laid the whole
		of Raumarike under his power. King Eystein's second son, King Sigtryg's
		brother, was also called Eystein, and was then king in Hedemark. As soon as
		Halfdan had returned to Vestfold, King Eystein went out with his army to
		Raumarike, and laid the whole country in subjection to him</p>
	<h2 id="s2">2. BATTLE BETWEEN HALFDAN AND EYSTEIN.</h2>
	<p>When King Halfdan heard of these disturbances in Raumarike, he again
		gathered his army together; and went out against King Eystein. A battle took
		place between them, and Halfdan gained the victory, and Eystein fled up to
		Hedemark, pursued by Halfdan. Another battle took place, in which Halfdan was
		again victorious; and Eystein fled northwards, up into the Dales to the herse
		Gudbrand. There he was strengthened with new people, and in winter he went
		towards Hedemark, and met Halfdan the Black upon a large island which lies in
		the Mjosen lake. There a great battle was fought, and many people on both
		sides were slain, but Halfdan won the victory. There fell Guthorm, the son of
		the herse Gudbrand, who was one of the finest men in the Uplands. Then
		Eystein fled north up the valley, and sent his relation Halvard Skalk to King
		Halfdan to beg for peace. On consideration of their relationship, King
		Halfdan gave King Eystein half of Hedemark, which he and his relations had
		held before; but kept to himself Thoten, and the district called Land. He
		likewise appropriated to himself Hadeland, and thus became a mighty king.</p>
	<h2 id="s3">3. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE</h2>
	<p>Halfdan the Black got a wife called Ragnhild, a daughter of Harald
		Gulskeg (Goldbeard), who was a king in Sogn. They had a son, to whom Harald
		gave his own name; and the boy was brought up in Sogn, by his mother's
		father, King Harald. Now when this Harald had lived out his days nearly, and
		was become weak, having no son, he gave his dominions to his daughter's son
		Harald, and gave him his title of king; and he died soon after. The same
		winter his daughter Ragnhild died; and the following spring the young Harald
		fell sick and died at ten years of age. As soon as Halfdan the Black heard of
		his son's death, he took the road northwards to Sogn with a great force, and
		was well received. He claimed the heritage and dominion after his son; and no
		opposition being made, he took the whole kingdom. Earl Atle Mjove (the
		Slender), who was a friend of King Halfdan, came to him from Gaular; and the
		king set him over the Sogn district, to judge in the country according to the
		country's laws, and collect scat upon the king's account. Thereafter King
		Halfdan proceeded to his kingdom in the Uplands.</p>
	<h2 id="s4">4. HALFDAN'S STRIFE WITH GANDALF'S SONS.</h2>
	<p>In autumn, King Halfdan proceeded to Vingulmark. One night when he was
		there in guest quarters, it happened that about midnight a man came to him
		who had been on the watch on horseback, and told him a war force was come
		near to the house. The king instantly got up, ordered his men to arm
		themselves, and went out of the house and drew them up in battle order. At
		the same moment, Gandalf's sons, Hysing and Helsing, made their appearance
		with a large army. There was a great battle; but Halfdan being overpowered by
		the numbers of people fled to the forest, leaving many of his men on this
		spot. His foster-father, Olver Spake (the Wise), fell here. The people now
		came in swarms to King Halfdan, and he advanced to seek Gandalf's sons. They
		met at Eid, near Lake Oieren, and fought there. Hysing and Helsing fell, and
		their brother Hake saved himself by flight. King Halfdan then took possession
		of the whole of Vingulmark, and Hake fled to Alfheimar.</p>
	<h2 id="s5">5. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE WITH HJORT'S DAUGHTER.</h2>
	<p>Sigurd Hjort was the name of a king in Ringerike, who was stouter and
		stronger than any other man, and his equal could not be seen for a handsome
		appearance. His father was Helge Hvasse (the Sharp); and his mother was
		Aslaug, a daughter of Sigurd the worm-eyed, who again was a son of Ragnar
		Lodbrok. It is told of Sigurd that when he was only twelve years old he
		killed in single combat the berserk Hildebrand, and eleven others of his
		comrades; and many are the deeds of manhood told of him in a long saga about
		his feats. Sigurd had two children, one of whom was a daughter, called
		Ragnhild, then twenty years of age, and an excellent brisk girl. Her brother
		Guthorm was a youth. It is related in regard to Sigurd's death that he had a
		custom of riding out quite alone in the uninhabited forest to hunt the wild
		beasts that are hurtful to man, and he was always very eager at this sport.
		One day he rode out into the forest as usual, and when he had ridden a long
		way he came out at a piece of cleared land near to Hadeland. There the
		berserk Hake came against him with thirty men, and they fought. Sigurd Hjort
		fell there, after killing twelve of Hake's men; and Hake himself lost one
		hand, and had three other wounds. Then Hake and his men rode to Sigurd's
		house, where they took his daughter Ragnhild and her brother Guthorm, and
		carried them, with much property and valuable articles, home to Hadeland,
		where Hake had many great farms. He ordered a feast to be prepared, intending
		to hold his wedding with Ragnhild; but the time passed on account of his
		wounds, which healed slowly; and the berserk Hake of Hadeland had to keep his
		bed, on account of his wounds, all the autumn and beginning of winter. Now
		King Halfdan was in Hedemark at the Yule entertainments when he heard this
		news; and one morning early, when the king was dressed, he called to him
		Harek Gand, and told him to go over to Hadeland, and bring him Ragnhild,
		Sigurd Hjort's daughter. Harek got ready with a hundred men, and made his
		journey so that they came over the lake to Hake's house in the grey of the
		morning, and beset all the doors and stairs of the places where the
		house-servants slept. Then they broke into the sleeping-room where Hake
		slept, took Ragnhild, with her brother Guthorm, and all the goods that were
		there, and set fire to the house-servants' place, and burnt all the people in
		it. Then they covered over a magnificent waggon, placed Ragnhild and Guthorm
		in it, and drove down upon the ice. Hake got up and went after them a while;
		but when he came to the ice on the lake, he turned his sword-hilt to the
		ground and let himself fall upon the point, so that the sword went through
		him. He was buried under a mound on the banks of the lake. When King Halfdan,
		who was very quick of sight, saw the party returning over the frozen lake,
		and with a covered waggon, he knew that their errand was accomplished
		according to his desire. Thereupon he ordered the tables to be set out, and
		sent people all round in the neighbourhood to invite plenty of guests; and
		the same day there was a good feast which was also Halfdan's marriage-feast
		with Ragnhild, who became a great queen. Ragnhild's mother was Thorny, a
		daughter of Klakharald king in Jutland, and a sister of Thyre Dannebod who
		was married to the Danish king, Gorm the Old, who then ruled over the Danish
		dominions.</p>
	<h2 id="s6">6. OF RAGNHILD'S DREAM.</h2>
	<p>Ragnhild, who was wise and intelligent, dreamt great dreams. She
		dreamt, for one, that she was standing out in her herb-garden, and she took a
		thorn out of her shift; but while she was holding the thorn in her hand it
		grew so that it became a great tree, one end of which struck itself down into
		the earth, and it became firmly rooted; and the other end of the tree raised
		itself so high in the air that she could scarcely see over it, and it became
		also wonderfully thick. The under part of the tree was red with blood, but
		the stem upwards was beautifully green and the branches white as snow. There
		were many and great limbs to the tree, some high up, others low down; and so
		vast were the tree's branches that they seemed to her to cover all Norway,
		and even much more.</p>
	<h2 id="s7">7. OF HALFDAN'S DREAM.</h2>
	<p>King Halfdan never had dreams, which appeared to him an extraordinary
		circumstance; and he told it to a man called Thorleif Spake (the Wise), and
		asked him what his advice was about it. Thorleif said that what he himself
		did, when he wanted to have any revelation by dream, was to take his sleep in
		a swine-sty, and then it never failed that he had dreams. The king did so,
		and the following dream was revealed to him. He thought he had the most
		beautiful hair, which was all in ringlets; some so long as to fall upon the
		ground, some reaching to the middle of his legs, some to his knees, some to
		his loins or the middle of his sides, some to his neck, and some were only as
		knots springing from his head. These ringlets were of various colours; but
		one ringlet surpassed all the others in beauty, lustre, and size. This dream
		he told to Thorleif, who interpreted it thus: -- There should be a great
		posterity from him, and his descendants should rule over countries with
		great, but not all with equally great, honour; but one of his race should be
		more celebrated than all the others. It was the opinion of people that this
		ringlet betokened King Olaf the Saint. King Halfdan was a wise man, a man of
		truth and uprightness -- who made laws, observed them himself, and obliged
		others to observe them. And that violence should not come in place of the
		laws, he himself fixed the number of criminal acts in law, and the
		compensations, mulcts, or penalties, for each case, according to every one's
		birth and dignity (1). Queen Ragnhild gave birth to a son, and water was
		poured over him, and the name of Harald given him, and he soon grew stout and
		remarkably handsome. As he grew up he became very expert at all feats, and
		showed also a good understanding. He was much beloved by his mother, but less
		so by his father. ENDNOTES: (1) The penalty, compensation, or manbod for
		every injury, due the party injured, or to his family and next of kin if the
		injury was the death or premeditated murder of the party, appears to have
		been fixed for every rank and condition, from the murder of the king down to
		the maiming or beating a man's cattle or his slave. A man for whom no
		compensation was due was a dishonored person, or an outlaw. It appears to
		have been optional with the injured party, or his kin if he had been killed,
		to take the mulct or compensation, or to refuse it, and wait for an
		opportunity of taking vengeance for the injury on the party who inflicted it,
		or on his kin. A part of each mulct or compensation was due to the king; and,
		these fines or penalties appear to have constituted a great proportion of the
		king's revenues, and to have been settled in the Things held in every
		district for administering the law with the lagman. -- L.</p>
	<h2 id="s8">8. HALFDAN'S MEAT VANISHES AT A FEAST</h2>
	<p>King Halfdan was at a Yule-feast in Hadeland, where a wonderful thing
		happened one Yule evening. When the great number of guests assembled were
		going to sit down to table, all the meat and all the ale disappeared from the
		table. The king sat alone very confused in mind; all the others set off, each
		to his home, in consternation. That the king might come to some certainty
		about what had occasioned this event, he ordered a Fin to be seized who was
		particularly knowing, and tried to force him to disclose the truth; but
		however much he tortured the man, he got nothing out of him. The Fin sought
		help particularly from Harald, the king's son, and Harald begged for mercy
		for him, but in vain. Then Harald let him escape against the king's will, and
		accompanied the man himself. On their journey they came to a place where the
		man's chief had a great feast, and it appears they were well received there.
		When they had been there until spring, the chief said, " Thy father took it
		much amiss that in winter I took some provisions from him, -- now I will
		repay it to thee by a joyful piece of news: thy father is dead; and now thou
		shalt return home, and take possession of the whole kingdom which he had, and
		with it thou shalt lay the whole kingdom of Norway under thee."</p>
	<h2 id="s9">9. HALFDAN S DEATH.</h2>
	<p>Halfdan the Black was driving from a feast in Hadeland, and it so
		happened that his road lay over the lake called Rand. It was in spring, and
		there was a great thaw. They drove across the bight called Rykinsvik, where
		in winter there had been a pond broken in the ice for cattle to drink at, and
		where the dung had fallen upon the ice the thaw had eaten it into holes. Now
		as the king drove over it the ice broke, and King Halfdan and many with him
		perished. He was then forty years old. He had been one of the most fortunate
		kings in respect of good seasons. The people thought so much of him, that
		when his death was known and his body was floated to Ringerike to bury it
		there, the people of most consequence from Raumarike, Vestfold, and Hedemark
		came to meet it. All desired to take the body with them to bury it in their
		own district, and they thought that those who got it would have good crops to
		expect. At last it was agreed to divide the body into four parts. The head
		was laid in a mound at Stein in Ringerike, and each of the others took his
		part home and laid it in a mound; and these have since been called Halfdan's
		Mounds.</p>
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